-Waking up super early with Cohen the day after Thanksgiving and going to Dunkin Doughnuts before getting out all our Christmas stuff. Cohen was so excited to see everything, especially all of the Christmas books. Sophie also got a kick out of several previously unused Christmas stuffed animals. She plays with them daily and calls them her “guys”

-Cohen helping chop down the Christmas tree, and excitedly yelling “don’t forget to say Timber!” as he’s sawing away at the trunk

-Both kids requesting me to sing Christmas songs before bed every night. They often request “kid” Christmas songs, which usually means “jingle bells” “up on the housetop” (which they call “up on the rooftop”) or “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas.” They both also really like “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” I think Cohen remembers it from last year, and Sophie likes it because it is in CHarlie Brown Christmas. Every time it comes on she adamantly shouts “It’s the CHarlie Brown song!!”

-Taking the day off to bake Christmas cookies. Cohen once again woke up early and the first words out of his mouth were “Is it time to bake cookies yet?” We had the sugar cookie dough mixing by 7am.

-Whenever we drive at night, both kids have to shout out “Christmas Lights!!” whenever we see Christmas lights, and Sophie usually adds “I saw ’em first!”

-Cohen waving and calling “Good Bye Santa!” as Santa left the stage at our “polar express” outing. His voice was so sincere and his eyes so full of belief, it choked me up.

-Jacob carrying both kids on his back as we walked through the streets of Chicago to go see the Christmas tree at daley center. Taking our first taxi ride as a family and Sophie saying “It’s a bumpy one!”